Skyrocket Your Business To the Next Level

Hot Social Media News for this week is going to be short and sweet. Angie is very happily enjoying Jamaica. Today she accomplished her year long goal of participating in a Half marathon! So I first want to say YEAH ANGIE!!

Now down to business. I found some great links for this week so here goes:

Recently I upgraded my cell phone to an Android capable phone. This is my first smart phone of any kind. Today I got to thinking, how do people decide on whether to get an Android or iPhone. Is it because of recommendations from friends? Maybe it is because of all the publicity of one or the other. So how do you choose?

Here is why I choose an Android:

I don’t like AT&T! I have been with them before and I was not impressed. I would have to use them if I got an iPhone.

I am already with Verizon. A lot of my family is with Verizon, which means I can talk to them FREE!

I could upgrade FREE. I didn’t get the Droid but the LG Ally and I didn’t have to pay anything for it because of my contract. So once again I got it FREE!

It really had nothing to do with whether I would like an Android or iPhone it was all about economics for me!

How do I like the Android?

I love it! I have had it for two weeks now. I am finally pretty comfortable with it. I got an Android because of my business. Since I have four children I am not always home. There is a lot of waiting in my life. Waiting for the kids to be done at the dentist. Waiting at the school for my daughter to receive an award in an assembly. Waiting for my son to be done with choir practice. Next month we will be starting sports and piano lessons. Yes, more waiting. When I am waiting I can be working on my phone! I can blog, tweet, update facebook, answer emails, etc. I have loved being connected.

I don’t forget things!

I have also started using my phone for grocery lists, to-do lists and my calendar. As a mother of four I can’t forget activities, meetings and everything, everyone else is doing. I use my Google Calendar to keep me on track!

I know there are a lot of things I haven’t done yet with my phone but so far it has been great! So the question I pose to you is what do you prefer an Android or iPhone? And WHY?

Do you know who is using social media online? Most people assume it is only the teens or those in there twenties. Well think again!! I recently read a post on the Village Soup called Think social media is just for the young? and it talks about this specifically! There is also a great post written by Pew Internet that refers to the older population online!

Young adults tend to be the highest users of social media but a survey done by Princeton Survey Research Associates International shows that the older generations have been signing up and joining the fun. Here are some of the stats:

Between April 2009 and May 2010, social networking use among internet users ages 50-64 grew by 88%–from 25% to 47%.

During the same period, use among those ages 65 and older grew 100%–from 13% to 26%.

By comparison, social networking use among users ages 18-29 grew by 13%—from 76% to 86%.

If your target market is 50+ years do not count out social media online as your marketing plan. From personal experience Most of the people that I know that are 50+ years have really gotten involved in Facebook. In some cases they participate in social networking on Facebook more than I have in the past!

Social Media is a big buzz word these days. It is the new hot thing in marketing. But what is a social media manager? You could make some guesses. You may even be right!!

First of all let’s talk about why social media is good for your business. Whether you have a big business and do millions of dollars in business every year or you are a very small business, you need social media. In order to find leads, make sales and build your brand you must put yourself in front of people. According to Facebook, people spend over 500 billion minutes per month on their site. Twitter revealed in April of 2010 that they now have 105,779,710 registered users and 180 million unique visitors come to the site every month. What better places to get in front of your potential clients and customers! So back to the original question.

What is a Social Media Manager?

A Social Media Manager is someone who understands social media websites and has used them successfully. They use their knowledge and skills to assist you in keeping your
accounts current and attracting the best people for your company. They can also assist you in developing a plan to help your business stay well represented on social networks. If you want to make sure that your reputation is upheld, a manager can monitor the networks for complaints, praise and other significant comments that you will enable you to address them quickly.

A Plan Just For You

Social media needs are different for each company. A large corporation may need a social media manager to handle customer service and reputation monitoring as well as updates for them. They also may need content creation on blogs, websites and even articles to be written and distributed to the main networks. These are things that can all be handled by one person! On the other hand if you are a small business that handles all of your own updates for Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, that is great! You may just get too bogged down by the amount of spammers that keep sending you offers through these sites! Here is where a manager can step in and clean things up for you so that all you see when you go to your Twitter account are the legitimate direct messages that will help your business.

How Can a Social Media Manager Help With Twitter?

One of the most tedious things you face when you have a growing and successful business is getting followers and finding who to follow on Twitter. Everyone loves followers, right? They are great but it takes up so much time to review who you want to follow back! You can let your SMM know what kind of people you want to follow and each day they can go into your account and review people for you and hit that follow button! You will not believe how much time this alone will save you. It will also increase the eyes that will see what you want to say!

Clearing out auto direct messages is another big thing a SMM can do for you. This will allow you to see the direct messages that will help your business grow and allow you to handle problems quickly.